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Fully functional EU Single Market is the goal and an advantage to each Member State

The Single Market Forum (hereinafter – the Forum) on 26 March this year brought together in Riga nearly 200 participants – members of the EU Parliament, representatives of governments of the Member States, entrepreneurs and NGOs to assess how the EU Single Market works in practice and how it can be improved in areas such as the Digital single market, cross-border provision of services and in the field of regulated professions.

At the opening of the Forum, the Minister for Economics Dana Reizniece-Ozola said that the EU Single Market is the basis and an advantage for growth and it allows EU enterprises to compete and succeed in the global arena.

“The EU Single Market is the cornerstone of our prosperity and our common goal is to strengthen and develop it,” stressed Dana Reizniece-Ozola.

Also the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska and the Chair of the European Parliament Committee for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Vicky Ford took part in the opening of the Forum.

Forum concluded series of conferences organised by the European Commission, which in 2014 and at the beginning of 2015 took place in 16 European cities. The final conference in Riga was a summary of 20 previous discussions. The results of EU Single Market Forum will be an important contribution to the European Commission's future work, in particular developing the strategy for the Internal Market, which is scheduled for publication at the end of this year.

In the panel discussion on the Digital single market participants discussed issues regarding consumer protection and trust in digital environment, as well as opportunities to simplify cross-border online shopping , which is still hampered by requirements such as to use bank cards of a specific country. During the Forum the representatives of various enterprises were involved in discussions on various possible solutions for simplifying the business start-ups, access to finance and development of innovations to enhance the development of the Digital single market. Several participants noted that it is important to encourage enterprises, especially SMEs, to offer cross-border services online and to try out new fields using the potential of digital technologies.

The administrative burden was often named by Forum participants as the prime hurdle to provision of cross-border services, although they also acknowledged that the Member States have made great progress in simplifying and digitizing administrative procedures with the implementation of the Services Directive. Entrepreneurs noted that another significant difficulty is a lack in accessibility of information and absence of specialized market research for services and administrative procedures that would be available in English.

Participants also had a chance to take part in a round table discussion on regulated professions, giving them a possibility to discover best practices of the Member States in implementation of reforms. Experts unanimously agreed that approximately 800 regulated professions across the EU is too large number and that it is a significant barrier to the free movement of labour.

The Forum was organised by the European Commission in collaboration with the Latvian Presidency and the European Parliament.

More information on the Single Market Forumeu2015.lv

Photos from the meetingem.gov.lv

Contact

ELITA RUBESA-VORAVKO

Expert in communication
+371 67013193
elita.rubesa@em.gov.lv

 

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